Caffeinated Clint
Another day, Another franchise for Chris Pine.
As if “Star Trek” and the Jack Ryan reboot weren’t enough, the new go-to guy for reboots, Chris Pine, is now being sought to play the tin man at the center of MGM’s “RoboCop” reboot. Should he accept, Pine will step into the big mechanized boots previously worn by Peter Weller (and Robert J.Burke, who played the character in the ill-fated “RoboCop 3”).
Twitchfilm, who broke the news, point out that just because ‘Captain Kirk’ may be the studio’s first choice to play OCP’s favourite guinea pig it doesn’t mean director Jose Padhila is for him.
There is no word as to whether director Jose Padilha agrees with the selection and the offer has not yet gone out but we’re told Pine currently tops the MGM casting list.
If this pans out then it will represent a dramatic shift in the character. At the age of 30 Pine is a full decade younger than Peter Weller was when he first took on the role and much more a heart-throb movie star than Weller ever was. You put Pine into a movie when you want to attract a young female audience – an audience that Paul Verhoeven didn’t give a rat’s ass about in the 1987 original, which is part of what made the film great.
Am I reading into this? Yes, I am. But while Pine has shown that he is probably capable of more than the roles he has played so far have given him, this just feels like an odd direction to go. A pretty Robocop is a silly Robocop. It’s a role that absolutely has to have some depth to it – and an actor who can carry all of that depth just through his face – if it is to work at all. I’m not a fan of this and would much rather see a different sort of actor in the part entirely. Someone a bit older. Someone with a history of delivering strong characters.
I have to agree – those sparkly eyes of Pine just don’t suit the role of Murphy/Robo; an unknown or perhaps even a Joel David Moore or Willem Dafoe type (there, I said it!) might work better.
